To Dan Davis

I have been very fortunate to be the beneficiary of the al-
most mystical affinity that in the best of circumstances
develops between a speech maker and a speech writer. For
thirty-five years, from 1971 to 2006, Dan Davis’s expan-
sive and precise thinking and facility with words has been
invaluable in helping me flesh out my ideas and convey
them crisply and elegantly. Our work together has exem-
plified the combination of trust, loyalty, and friendship
that is as crucial as intelligence and skill at wordsmithing
to the process of collaboration between speech writer and
speech maker. We have discussed ideas and concepts
frankly and without fear of the other taking offense. He
has never objected to my being the final authority on the
content of a speech, an authority I have fully exercised.
But I’ve never doubted that at the end of my giving every
speech we have crafted, he has always been the proudest
person in the room for me. And I have continually real-
ized and been more and more grateful for our profes-
sional relationship and our personal friendship.

This book’s appearance indicates my good fortune in

now having found the same essential common ground
with another writer, Lee A. Daniels—like Dan Davis, an
alumnus of the National Urban League.

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